CFTC Votes to Treat Commodity Options the Same as Other Swaps

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission adopted rules today that will treat commodity options
the same as all other swaps.

In a 5-0 vote, the five-member commission removed
regulations that for more than a decade have treated
agricultural swaps and commodity options differently than other
transactions in the swaps market. Those products will now be
subject to the same rules as interest rate, credit and other
types of swaps.

The rule takes effect 60 days after it is published in the
Federal Register.

The CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission are
implementing rules for the swaps market after unregulated trades
helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis. The CFTC will vote later
today on a separate rule that would define a regulated dealer in
the market as one that conducts swaps with a notional value of
at least $8 billion in a 12-month period.

The SEC is also voting today on a rule that would impose
that threshold on securities-based swaps.